


The Way We Fall

by So_Caffeinated (so_caffeinated)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Canon, Canon character deaths, F/M, Gen, Post - Deathly Hallows, Romance, Tragedy, canon gave me feels okay?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-12-12 06:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/so_caffeinated/pseuds/So_Caffeinated





	The Way We Fall

We fall. We fall and we expect the world to fall with us. And when it doesn't, when it keeps on and doesn't realize that it is infinitely changed, it always surprises us.

The first time she trips in front of him and he helps her up with a smile instead of a snicker like other people do, no one seems to notice that her hair is a bit brighter or her smile a bit wider. And it stuns her a bit because how could they _not_ notice when it all seems so obvious to her? But Molly keeps cooking and Kreacher keeps muttering and the twins keep pulling pranks and no one seems to see the moment everything shifted.

There is no swelling orchestral score the first time she makes his heart surge and his breath catch in his throat. She's so effervescent, so lovely that he half expects everyone in the room to look at each other in sudden realization, as she laughs in complete abandon over some old school tale Sirius is telling her. But no one does. Sirius keeps on, thrilled only with having an audience, and 'Dung keeps examining the candlestick holders far too closely while Bill continues gathering up his coat to leave. It's only him that sees the way everything but her seems to blur and pale in comparison.

The first time they fall together, he feels like he's discovered some amazing secret about how the world works because it has never been like this before. He has never felt so connected to someone so completely. It seems as though nothing can go wrong the next morning, like the day ought to be perfect because the two of them have just uncovered some great truth about life. So when they get word over morning tea that Amelia Bones has been murdered, it just seems wrong, ill-fitting in this new world they've woken up to.

When they stumble, when she pulls as he pushes and the two of them are wrenched apart by each other and circumstance, it feels a bit as though the world might have ended. Strange then, that his morning post still arrives on time and her milk still goes sour and the both of them still have errands to run and jobs to complete for a world that's not noticed it changed.

As one of their own slips away from them, they collapse together in barely-noticed brilliance, nothing more than a minor diversion in the lives of those around them. They surge, crest and break in the tide of a war they have only the smallest of parts in. Often together, sometimes apart as he is crushed by the weight of a world he cannot change. A son is born in the midst of it all and everything is still in motion with only a precious few who stop and take note that everything, _everything_ has suddenly shifted to focus on this little boy.

In the end, when they falter one last time, the world still spins and the war rages on, if only for moments longer. They are mourned in a footnote on page four of the Daily Prophet and tears are shed by those who knew them as more than a name or a blurry black and white photo in the overcrowded obituaries. But eventually, they are committed to the ground and tears run dry, even for those who knew them best. And the world, in its ignorance, keeps spinning.


End file.
